Last September, my family was involved in a pretty bloody horrific car accident just outside Hexham, Northumberland. My Mum and littlest sister Iona were pretty shaken up, but my middle sister Heather was badly injured. She had a real rogue's gallery of 'oh christ no not that!' afflictions that would have killed her in pretty short order.

If it hadn't been for the Great North Air Ambulance she most certainly would have died. They apparently got her from roadside to hospital in about 7 minutes. SEVEN MINUTES. And that's incredible.

Heather's going to be absolutely fine now, and a LOT of that is down to the fire service, and to the NHS who put her back together with amazing speed, but the Air Ambulance is NOT funded by the NHS. It relies on donations. And donations rely on incredibly grateful chumpos like me doing long walks and guilting you lot into throwing money at them.

Insanely, Heather is ALSO doing the walk, and quite a bit of family and some friends are doing it too. It's apparently TWENTY-SIX MILES and I'm not sure I've ever walked more than about eight and that was two decades ago and I've gone on about it ever since. I sort of signed up to it in a fit of bravado but it's sinking in a bit since I started digging into the arrangements - a few of my early questions  reproduced below to set the tone:

'Is it the sort of thing where you pack a few gin tins?'

'It takes, what, four hours?'

'What if you DO get wet feet though? And what if you can't stand wet feet?'

So, look, it'll be a laugh.

Here's the official stuff from GNAAS:

The Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS) rescues hundreds of severely injured or ill patients every year throughout the North East, North Yorkshire and Cumbria. Their doctor-led critical care teams deliver life-saving treatments at the scene of the incident whether that is on a fell top, a roadside or in a city centre. The charity responded to 1,640 call outs last year* alone, via their helicopter and emergency response vehicles, where they performed treatments and procedures which can mean the difference between life or death.